hankyoreh

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon expressed concern regarding indications that North Korea is preparing to test-fire a ballistic missile.

During a weekly news briefing at the ministry on June 7, Minister Ban said, "[South Korea and the U.S.] are closely watching Pyeongyang’s moves and sharing information, but I cannot discuss any further because it is connected with intelligence issues."

Intelligence authorities of the two countries obtained information that a ballistic missile at a military base in North Korea’s North Hamgyeong Province would likely be used in the test-fire. The missile type is a Daepodong-2, with a range of 3,500-6,000 km, not an improved model with a range of 15,000 km, as some media had previously reported. No fuel has been injected into the missile yet, the intelligence sources said.

A source said, "In light of the fact that the North, while signaling its anticipated moves for a long time, hasn’t fueled up the missile," the possibility is high that it is a kind of posturing by the North than an actual test-fire attempt.

Other current regional tensions are expected to surface at the 5th Korea-Japan negotiation on setting an exclusive economic zone borderline, to be held in Tokyo on June 12-13. "Since Japan used Dokdo as a starting point for its EEZ negotiations as it did in the past," Minister Ban said, South Korea "can’t help but using" the disputed East Sea islets as its starting point for the upcoming negotiations. This starting point was reportedly agreed upon by the government at the related pan-national high-ranking taskforce meeting on June 5.